Land Preparation

Selection of site

• Sites with slight to moderate slope are ideal for pepper cultivation, as they promote drainage.
• Slopes facing south are to be avoided as far as possible.
• When such slopes are to be used for cultivation, the young plants may be sufficiently protected from the scorching sun during summer.

Selection of mother plants

• Cultivate varieties, which are proven to be highly productive.
• Select mother plants, which give regularly high yields and possess other desirable attributes such as vigorous growth, maximum number of spikes per unit area, long spikes, close setting of berries, disease tolerance etc.
• Selected mother plants should be in the age group of 5-12 years.
• Mark and label selected mother plants in October- November.

Raising of rooted cuttings

• Pepper is propagated vegetatively from cuttings.
• Select runner shoots produced at the base of mother plants and keep them coiled and raised to prevent from striking roots in the soil.
• Separate them from the vines in February-March. Very tender and too hard portions of the shoots are to be avoided for planting.
• The shoots are cut into pieces with 2-3 nodes in each.
• Two node semi-hard wood cuttings are to be planted for rooting of pepper cuttings.
• Leaves, if any, are to be clipped off leaving a small portion of the petioles on the stem.
• Satisfactory rooting and survival of cuttings (over 70 per cent) could be achieved even without any hormone treatment.
• Plant the cuttings in polythene bags filled with potting mixture.
• The potting mixture is prepared by mixing two parts of fertile topsoil, one part of river sand and one part of well rotten cattle manure.
• Substituting granite powder (a waste material from stone quarries) for sand in conventional potting mixture (2:1:1) is good for growth of pepper cuttings and is economical.
• Recommended for black pepper nurseries for large scale multiplication.
• Solarized potting mixture supplemented with nutrient solution (urea, superphosphate, MOP and magnesium sulphate in 4:3:2:1 ratio) and fortified with biocontrol consortia promotes growth and helps in production of disease-free rooted cuttings.
• When polythene bags are used, sufficient number of holes (16-20) may be provided at the base to ensure good drainage.
• The cuttings should be planted at least one node deep in the soil.
• The cutting after planting should be kept under good shade.
• In large nurseries, pandals are to be constructed for this purpose.
• The cuttings are to be well protected from direct sunlight and frequent watering is recommended in the nursery to maintain a humid and cool atmosphere around the cuttings.
• Watering 2-3 times a day is sufficient. Heavy watering, which makes the soil slushy and causes water logging is to be avoided.
• Partially composted coir pith and vermicompost (75:25) enriched with Trichoderma (in talc formulation, 10⁷ cfu g-1 at the rate of 10 g kg-1) is found to be an ideal potting medium for black pepper nursery for healthy planting material production using plug-trays (cell dimension of 7.5 x 7.5 x 10.0 cm) compared to conventional multiplication.
• It reduces the incidence of soil born diseases and aids easy transportation of seedlings.

Serpentine method of propagation

• Three node cuttings planted in polythene bags are kept in a corner of the nursery.
• When the plant develops two leaves they are trailed horizontally in polythene bags containing potting mixture kept below each tender node.
• Each node will be pressed into the mixture with polythene bags with ‘V’ shaped midribs of coconut leaves.
• As new shoots arise these will be trailed horizontally in polythene bags containing potting mixture.
• Upward growth of cutting is not arrested. Once twenty nodes get rooted first 10 bags in the rooted nodes will be separated by cutting at the inter nodes.
• The inter nodal stub will be pushed back into the potting mixture.
• These stubs also produce a second root system.
• Daily irrigation is to be given using a rose can.
• After three months it will be ready for planting in the main field.
• On an average 60 cuttings will be obtained in a year by this method from each mother cutting.
• Recommended in black pepper nurseries for large scale multiplication.

Field planting

• Planting of standards is to be taken up in April-May with the onset of pre-monsoon showers.
• Karayam or Killingil (Garuga pinnata), Matti/Pongalyam (Ailanthus sp.), subabul (Leucaenea leucocephala) etc. are suitable standards for growing pepper.
• Acacia auriculiformis and Artocarpus heterophyllus are two multipurpose support tree species suitable for block cultivation of black pepper (Piper nigrum L.).
• Pepper yields are promising when trees are grown in high density (3 x 3m spacing; 1111 trees/ ha) block plantations.
• Both the tree species provide additional economic returns through timber yield at final harvest. Because of prevalence of Erythrina gall wasp avoid using Erythrina as standard. Only species tolerant to Erythrina gall wasp is Erythrina variegata (heavily throny).
• In high altitude areas, dadap (E. lithosperma) and Silver oak (Grevillea robusta) can be successfully used as standard for pepper.
• Seedlings of subabul and silver oak are to be planted 2-3 years before planting pepper. The cuttings of standards are to be planted in narrow holes of 40 to 50 cm depth.
• The spacing recommended is 3 m x 3 m on plain lands and 2 m between plants in rows across the slope and 4 m between rows on sloppy lands.
• The soil should be pressed well around the standards to avoid air pockets and keep the standards firm in the soil.
• For planting pepper, prepare pits on the northern side of standards, 15 cm away from it.
• The pit size should be 50 cm x 50 cm x 50 cm.
• Fill the pits with a mixture of top soil and compost or well rotten cattle manure @ 5 kg per pit and 50 g of Trichoderma.
• With the onset of south west monsoon in June-July, plant 2 rooted cuttings in the pits at a distance of about 30 cm away from the standards.
• Press the soil around the cuttings and form a small mound slopping outward and away from the cuttings to prevent water stagnation around the plants.
• The growing portions of the cuttings are to be trailed and tied to the standards.
• Provide shade to the plants if the land is exposed and if there is a break in the rainfall.
• When pepper is trailed on arecanut, plant the cuttings 1.0 m away from palm and 1.5 m when coconut is used as the support.
• Trail the pepper vines on a temporary stake for 1-2 years.
• When they attain sufficient length to reach the tree trunk, remove the stake without causing damage to the vines and tie the pepper plants on to the tree trunk and trail them on it.

Management after planting

• If the terrain of the land is sloppy or uneven, carry out contour bunding or terracing to prevent soil erosion.
• Carry out digging around the standards and vines at a radius of about 1 m from the base or in the entire plantation, twice during the year, the first at the onset of southwest monsoon and the second towards the end of northeast monsoon.
• Weeding around the plants is to be done according to necessity.
• However, in foot rot affected gardens, digging should be avoided and weeds are removed by slashing. In the early stages, tie the vines to the standards, if found necessary.
• Where pepper is grown in large areas, growing of cover crops like Calapagonium muconoides is recommended.
• When such cover crops are grown, they are to be cut back regularly from the base of the plants to prevent them from twining along with the pepper vines.
• Lowering of vines after one year’s growth will promote lateral branch production.
• Intercropping of pepper gardens with ginger, turmeric, colocasia and elephant foot yam is advantageous.
• Banana as an intercrop in yielding gardens reduces pepper yield.
• Therefore, this is not recommended beyond three to four years after planting of pepper vines.
• However, in the early years, banana provides shade to the young plants and protects them from drying up during summer months.
• When pepper is grown in open places, shading and watering of the young seedlings may be done during summer months for the first 1 to 3 years according to necessity.
• The young plants may be completely covered with dry arecanut leaves, coconut leaves or twigs of trees until summer months are over.
• Mulching the basins of pepper vines during summer months is highly advantageous.
• Saw dust, arecanut husk and dry leaves are suitable mulching materials.
• Removal of unwanted terminal shoot growths and hanging shoots should be done as and when necessary.
• Prune and train the standards in March- April every year to remove excessive overgrowth and to give them a proper shape.
• The effective height of the standard is to be limited to about 6 m.
• A second pruning of the standards may be done in July-August, if there is excessive shade in the garden.
• PGPM soil application (50 g/vine) and spraying (2%) with consortium of PGPM helps to prevent phytophthora foot rot infestation.

Underplanting

• After regular bearing for about 20 years, the vines of most varieties start declining in yield.
• The age of decline in yield varies with variety and agroclimatic and management factors. So underplanting should be attempted at about 20 years after planting or when a declining trend in yield appears.
• The old and senile vines can be removed 3-5 years after underplanting depending upon the growth of the young vines.